Henry Fergus and the Powerup Stone
by Hx2
Summary: "Centuries ago, military scientists around the world were pressured into conducting a series of unethical experiments on volunteering army squads, turning them into super-soldiers. The idiots forgot that we could reproduce." -Prof. Lucy Binns
1. September 1st: the Sorting

So yeah, I've decided I feel like coming back to this story. I'm editing and reposting the chapters I've already written. There is no guarantee I'll be able to keep a constant pace after that, or whether I go on another hiatus. Enjoy Henry Fergus and the Powerup Stone!

Henry Fergus waited in line like all the other first years, nervously waiting for his turn to be sorted.

"Abercrombie, Sebastian!" was just sorted into Ravenclaw. The Sorting Helmet was removed from his head, and he went to sit down at a table in the Ravenclaw section.

"Fergus, Henry! It was his turn. With a nudge from someone behind him, Henry walked towards the decrepit wooden stool near the front of the hall, and sat down on it, realizing that (of course) it was not wood, but some kind of synthetic material that looked like wood, but in feel was closer to plastic. Mr. Nelson placed the Sorting Helmet over his head, obscuring his view of the room.

"T-helmet OS 3.2 starting up…" said a robotic voice that only Henry could hear. " "Commencing integration…"

Everything turned white. Henry found himself standing in a blank white expanse going in all directions. He turned and found himself face-to-face with a woman with curly reddish brown hair, bulky bright red-framed glasses that might have been considered stylish a few centuries ago, and wearing what seemed to be a stereotypical female secretary's outfit. It struck Henry as slightly sexist, and he knew at once that she wasn't real. She was holding a clipboard.

_She must be an A.I. of some kind, _thought Henry.

_That is correct. I am the Artificial Intelligence of the Sorting Helmet._

Henry suddenly noticed a fainter voice in the background say, "Commencing primary analysis…"

_What is your name?_

The question brought to mind the answer.

_Henry Fergus, _Henry responded.

"Analyzing associations…"

Images flickered across the blank white dreamscape.

_Henry Fergus, you are weak, stupid, and shouldn't be in this school, and you are fully expecting to be placed in Hufflepuff. Is that correct?_

For a moment, Henry was shocked by the Sorting Helmet's rudeness, until he remembered that it wasn't a real person, and therefore didn't care about being polite. Henry sagged and answered the question. _Yes._ What was going to happen to him now? He had just got here, and now he was going to be sent back home, wasn't he? What a waste of time…

The Sorting Helmet continued as if it hadn't heard the complaint.

"Commencing secondary analysis (As in second stage of analysis, not to be confused with the research method that utilizes second-hand information)…" said the faint robotic voice in the background. If he were an anime character, Henry would have sweat-dropped as he suddenly felt several thoughts come to the forefront of his mind, one after another, as the distant voice echoed them.

"Potential major characteristics: Highly intelligent, notices things others don't… great capacity for friendship, at least a 68% chance of strong loyalty to friends if friendship were to occur, a probability that could be found to be higher with further observation. An honest worker, believes he does the best he can. May perform better with confidence. Suggest therapeutic intervention if necessary."

After a while of silently scribbling on her clipboard (which in the real world wouldn't be possible), the A.I. looked up.

_ Are you sure that your opinion of yourself is correct?_

_ Huh?_

_I have detected that you have psychic powers. With mental abilities like yours, you would probably do best in Ravenclaw._

_ Don't I get a say in this? _Henry asked.

_Of course. Do you have any objections to being in Ravenclaw, or a house you would prefer?_

_ Like you said earlier, I'm weak and stupid. I can't be in Ravenclaw!_

_ But you have psychic powers. Ravenclaw is the best place to nurture psychic powers. If that is all, then it should be—_

_ I want friends—friends who'll be there for me. Who won't leave me._

"High level of loneliness detected. Analyzing associations."

The A.I. scribbled for a moment longer, and then looked up and said,

"_A student with too low an opinion of their potential might not do so well in Ravenclaw. When someone thinks they're stupid, they tend to act accordingly, making other people who don't know them as well agree with them. This creates an extreme social barrier that is very difficult to overcome. In extreme circumstances, it may be best to resort them." –Rowena Ravenclaw, 2025_

"Deintegrating…"

Henry woke up.

"Sending self-esteem data to the Hospital Wing. Deleting all personal data…announcing house…"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Shutting down…"


	2. September 1st

The Sorting Helmet was removed from his head, and Henry Fergus walked over to sit at an empty table in the Hufflepuff section. The sorting seemed to go on for ages. Finally, the sorting was over, and to his displeasure, Henry found himself sitting at a full table. The elderly headmaster Mr. Rooney stood up.

"Welcome to Hogwarts!" He said in a scratchy voice, beaming at the student body, his eyes twinkling. "Time to eat!"

Suddenly, ornate claws descended from the ceiling to the tables, removing the camouflage cloaks and retracting into the ceiling, revealing a spectacular dinner.

There was steak, applesauce, mac and cheese and salad (croutons and dressings on the side) at their table. But that was only their table. All the tables had different foods on it, and there were so many of them. Just about any popular dinner food one could think of and it was on one of the tables (except for sandwiches, those things had to be made yourself with the slices of bread found on some tables). Students (particularly the older years) started getting up and switching tables, or going to fetch foods from other tables.

No one at Henry's table got up though. They were all apparently satisfied with what they had, and began to dish out helpings. Henry avoided the applesauce.

"So what are your names?"

"Regulus Brown," said a voice next to him.

Henry kept eating, not paying attention to the conversation, somewhat dwelling on the Sorting, but mainly focusing on eating and little else. Then he noticed that the table seemed to be really quiet. He looked up from his food.

For some reason, everyone at the table (who were all older students, save Regulus) looked annoyed at him, and Henry realized they were talking to him. He swallowed and said, "Henry Fergus."

Henry went back to eating, this time making sure to try keeping his ears open in case he was spoken to.

Soon conversation turned to their families.

"All my family's been in Slytherin for ages," said Regulus. "If I had been put in Ravenclaw, then there might not have been a problem. I'm just glad I'm not in Gryffindor…" he shuddered. "My uncle Alex was in Gryffindor. He got disowned."

"Isn't there a second year Slytherin named Sandra Brown?"

"Yeah. That's my older sister. She's…not really nice to me."

"And what about you?"

Henry didn't really want to talk about it, but he saw no way out. He decided that he'd just say as little as possible.

"I'm muggleborn," he said. There was a short pause in which the other people sitting at the table looked like they expected him to say more, but then one of the older students said, in an accusatory voice, "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing's wrong with it! I didn't say that!" Henry said, defensively.

Sensing that this was a sensitive topic, they looked away and changed the subject.

His housemates attempted to include him for the rest of the meal. He participated a few times, but mostly he was silent. It wasn't that he was antisocial or anything, it was just that they didn't talk about things he was necessarily interested in or could relate to. (He didn't know what to say, and he didn't know how he could change the topi this late in the conversation.) It didn't stop both them and him from trying though, and giving annoyed looks when he couldn't give lengthier responses. At one point in the conversation both Henry and the rest of the people sitting with him gave up, and the conversation continued entirely without him for the rest of the meal.

Eventually, dinner was over. Dessert passed in much the same manner. Finally, once everyone was done eating (hopefully), Mr. Rooney stood up again.

"I have a few announcements to make. First of all, we have a new and an old teacher this year. Please give a warm welcome to our new Metaphysiological and Martial arts instructor, Instructor Hayne!" A bald man with wide eyes and a serious but nervous face, and wearing a black and white tuxedo-esque martial arts uniform stood up. The school applauded politely. Instructor Hayne sat back down.

"And a wonderful welcome back to our old life science teacher, representative of Eelops Ecological Society, Dr. Ann Cook!" A frizzy greying red head with a thin face with glasses and freckles stood up and the school applauded again. She sat down, and Mr. Rooney continued. "The forest outside the grounds is a wildlife preserve owned by her organization, and therefore is strictly forbidden to all students, unless a member of staff or Eelops representative says otherwise. Also, quidditch captains must speak with their head of house to schedule tryouts before the Quidditch season starts in October, which I know won't be a problem.

Our head janitor, Mr. Richards, has reminded me to remind you that there is to be no use of metaphysiological powers without authorization from the staff. For a list of rules showing who is authorized and in what situations, check your student handbooks. But still, it's common sense so use your judgement; be safe, don't use your powers to hurt others, or bite off more than you can chew, etc etc.

"And finally, and most importantly, the third floor corridor on the right hand side is completely forbidden, unless you have a death wish. But seriously, not even then, if a student dies here it could have serious repercussions for all of us. Don't go there. I mean it! If anyone's caught even trying to get in, then they will face serious consequences. And now I'm sure you're all tired. You will need to be well rested for your classes in the morning. Off to bed!"

Students began scooting back their chairs and standing up.

"First years follow me!" commanded the voice of one of the older students who had sat at the same table. It was a tall wavy blonde haired boy who looked like he was in his late teens. He had a badge on his school uniform (black shirt and jeans) with a letter P on it. According to the student handbook Henry had received in the mail (and misplaced several times) the P stood for "Prefect". In other words, he was a disciplinarian with less power than a member of staff, and also helped the Head Prefects in their work as go betweens for the staff and student government.

The prefect (who introduced himself as Seth Davis) led them into the entrance hall and down a staircase to the east wing of the basement, down a few hallways, going past empty classrooms, artwork and photographs on the walls on the way, before finally reaching a photo collage on a wall at the end of the hallway.

Some of the first years started muttering anxiously, believing that they were lost.

They stood there for a while, waiting, and the first years started getting restless.

Just as irked as all the first year Hufflepuffs were at him for apparently getting them lost, Seth turned around to address them.

"Don't worry, we're not lost. We just need to wait for someone to open the door for us. Unfortunately, despite the fact that many of the other upper years aside from myself should have gotten here before us, no one has answered the door." The last few words were said with great frustration. Seth sighed. "They're probably distracted or expecting someone else to do it. So, I suppose that now is as good a moment as any to teach you an old Hufflepuff trick. He turned back to face the collage on the wall, and said very loudly and clearly, "Badger!"

A few seconds later, the collage disappeared, and the door opened. Many of the first years oohed, and ahhed. Henry looked up at the ceiling just in time to notice a ceiling tile close shut, presumably covering a projector, before he hurried after the other first years, and found himself in a cozy mostly carpeted room, with sections that had wooden paneling with tables and chairs around them, and a larger section of wooden paneling by a fire place on the far left corner, with a bunch of squishy armchairs and a couch. On the right hand wall was a carpeted sunken floor with carpeted steps that went all the way around it in a half-circle. There was a foosball table and an air hockey table, and there was a television in the wall.

"Welcome to the Hufflepuff common room! This is basically what it looks like. Many people do their homework here, and it's a good place to hang out and relax. It's also a gathering place. Also, directly ahead of us is the entrance to the dormitories. The lift to the boys' dormitories is on the left; for the girls'—the same on your right. All of your belongings have already been brought down, so you don't need to worry about that. I'll dismiss you with your dorm mates, that way there's no crowding.

Looking at a list that Henry hadn't realized he'd been holding, Seth began to call out names.

He sent both the boys and girls in groups of three to five. Finally, there were only two students left, Henry and another student, with messy light-brown hair and blue eyes. He was nearly a head shorter than Henry.

"Turning to him, the boy said, "Well, looks like you're rooming with me."

Henry nodded, because he couldn't think of a better response. Then Seth sent them down to their dormitory.

On the way down the elevator, Regulus said, "I know you're not very social, and that's okay. But since we're rooming together, hopefully we can get along, and maybe be friends?"

Henry shrugged. "I'm Regulus Brown, by the way, in case you've forgotten." He held out his hand.

"Henry Fergus."

They shook hands.

Once they got to their dorm, they both had brushed their teeth and changed into PJs, then got into their respective bunks (Regulus had the top and Henry got the bottom). Each of them had a large thick wooden shelf attached to their bunks and the wall.

Right before Henry drifted off, he noticed that there was a third bed in the room...


	3. September 2nd

Henry got up early that morning and immediately walked over to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Unfortunately, the door was locked.

Henry waited a little while, and then knocked. No one answered. He knocked again. Then again. Finally, a deep voice answered, "Whadyou want!"

"I-I just want to brush my teeth." said Henry, startled.

He heard a click, and the door opened. Henry hastily got out of the way, as a large rather chubby boy with pointy eyes, a large almost bulbous nose, and a tanned complexion stepped out. His dark hair would have been rectangular from a two dimensional perspective, but Henry had never bothered to learn the names of different hair styles other than short, long, wavy and curly.

"Are you a first year?" asked Henry, wondering what someone who was obviously several years older than him was doing in a first year dorm.

"Yeah. Want to make something of it?" the other boy said, his face suddenly fierce.

Henry immediately and deeply regretted his initial reaction. There had been a third bed. He felt stupid.

"No! I just want to brush my teeth!" said Henry quickly. He rushed past the larger boy into the bathroom.

Hayato Goyle sighed, and lumbered back to his bed and collapsed on it.

Regulus, who had just woken up, noticed him. Concerned, he asked, "Are you okay?"

"No."

Hayato turned over on his side and refused to speak anymore.

By the time they were ready to have breakfast, Hayato still wouldn't get up, or even introduce himself.

Regulus turned to Henry.

"We need to go now if we want breakfast. C'mon."

As soon as they reached the common room, however, they saw Seth.

"Where's Hayato?" he asked.

"Who?" asked Regulus.

"Hayato Goyle."

"Oh, you mean our roommate?"

"He's in bed," said Henry, startling both Regulus and Seth with his responsiveness. He restrained from rolling his eyes.

On the way downstairs Regulus asked, "What happened to you being antisocial?"

"I have NOT been antisocial," Henry said with gritted teeth.

When they got to the Great Hall, they saw a bunch of people clustered around a table in the Gryffindor section from several houses. Henry noticed that there were no Slytherin students.

Curious, he and Regulus approached the commotion.

At the center of the crowd, someone was holding an old electronic book reader, and people were speaking anxiously in hushed voices.

"There's no other explanation! You-know-who's returned!" said the owner of the book reader, a curly red haired fifth year boy. Several people gasped and one person actually said, "It can't be!"

Regulus's face paled.

"Regulus?" there was no response. "Regulus?"

Regulus pushed his way into the crowd, looked Chuckie Weasley straight in the eye, and in a feeble attempt to look intimidating, accused, "Y-you're just making that up."

Several people hissed at him for his obvious lack of respect for the very popular Gryffindor.

"Don't believe me? See for yourself!" he handed his book reader to Regulus. It was an article from the Daily Quibbler.

Regulus and Henry began to read.

**Gringotts Unsafe? Griphook Admits Coverup**

**If you had been to Diagon Alley on the 1st of August, you might have seen a long line of cars outside the famous bank Gringotts, extended all the way around the block. This lasted for several hours, until the bank finally relented and opened its doors. Now, after a lengthy investigation, Gringotts CEO Armando Griphook confessed to having covered up a security breach. At a press conference last Friday, he repeatedly insisted that nothing had been taken. The contents of the vault in question had in fact been withdrawn on the very same day of the break-in.**

**"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your nose out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesperson.**

**Investigations continue, and the would-be thief has yet to be identified.**

By the end of the article, Regulus was, if possible, even paler.

"So, do you believe me now?" Chuckie asked, smugly.

"This doesn't mean anything!"

"Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that."

Regulus and Henry walked away towards the Hufflepuff section.

"What was that about?"

Regulus looked at him blankly. "You honestly don't know, do you?"

"Know what?" asked Henry, helping himself to some eggs and toast.

"Uhh, how should I go about this? Umm, well, you see...a few years ago there was this really bad guy. And I mean really bad. Like Hitler bad.

"Hitler?"

"Don't worry about it, we'll learn about him in our second year social studies class. But anyways, this really bad guy completely took over most of what is now the URNA. He tried to kill all the muggles, and any muggleborn who didn't renounce the muggles were killed as well. They were dark times."

"My family disagrees though," he grimaced. Henry's mouth fell open.

"Your family supports that kind of thing!" asked Henry shocked. He had always thought that people like that were sadistic criminals. And Regulus's whole family was like that? And he thought he had it bad. Clearly Regulus had the short end of the stick.

They sat in silence for a few moments, and then Henry asked, "What's his name?"

"Huh?"

"What 's his name?" Henry repeated. "The name of that really bad guy, I mean."

"His name was...his name was..." Regulus shuddered.

"Maybe you could write it down," Henry suggested.

Finally, Regulus got his bearings and whispered, "Hypnos."

"Hypnos?" asked Henry, his voice at a normal volume.

Regulus shushed him and looked around anxiously.

"And you think _he_ broke into Gringotts?"

"Well, not him necessarily," said Regulus. "But someone working for him. He's in Azkaban after all.

"Azkaban?" asked Henry.

"It's a high-security international prison. Hypnos and his followers were sent there after he was defeated."

"Prison?" asked Henry. After all those things he's done, or tried to do? Why isn't he dead?"

"I'm not sure, but Sandra's said that it was due to Mr. Rooney's interference. I don't know if that's true, though. He was the one who caught you-know-who.

"Why can't you just say his name?" asked Henry, annoyed. "Seriously, it's not that hard. It's only two syllables. Hyp. Nos. Hyp. Nos."

"Anyways," said Regulus, loudly cutting across him. "He was the only person who ever succeeded at breaking in—that we know of, anyways. Gringotts is probably the safest building on the continent, unless you count Hogwarts."

"Then maybe whatever was in that vault is being hidden here!" said Henry.

"Maybe," said Regulus.

Their first class was double Science with the Gryffindors. It was taught by an aging man with a silvery mustache and a hairstyle much like Hayato's. His glasses hung low over his hooked nose.

Students were still talking when he entered the room, but just a glare from him was enough to shut up almost everyone, the almost being because Chuckie Weasley's younger brother Kyle was still talking.

"Mr. Weasley, I'm sure that whatever Melody Olsen told you, your classmates are NOT interested right now."

Kyle turned pink and faced the front, scowling but silent.

With the class's full attention, the teacher began to speak.

"My name is Dr. Cook. That is what you will call me, not Mr. Cook, not Frankenstein, and especially not _Ted_. Anyone who makes fun of my name _will_ regret it."

He glared at them all as if to say, "Or else."

"Now, here's how things are going to go. We have five units to cover this year if you want to pass into second year. The first one we're going to go through as quickly as possible so that we can have time for the others. Who can tell me the difference between an observation and an inference?"

"Uh—" Henry started.

Dr. Cook suddenly descended upon him and said menacingly, "Raise your hand in my class, Mr—?"

"Fergus," said Henry. "Sorry, I thought you were—"

"Hand, Mr. Fergus."

Henry raised his hand. Dr. Cook ignored it, and walked away.

"Anyone?" asked Dr. Cook. "Alright then. What about the difference between a hypothesis and a theory? How about you, Mr. Weasley. Do you know?"

Kyle shook his head.  
"What about the scientific method?"

"I think Henry knows. Why don't you ask him?"

Dr. Cook looked over at Henry to see that his hand was still up.

"_Put your hand down. _Five points each from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor."

There was an outbreak of angry muttering at this.

"Points?" Henry quietly asked Regulus, who was sitting next to him.

Regulus looked surprised for a moment and then whispered, "I'll tell you later."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

"It was in the student handbook, and Dr. Ann told us on the boat that took us to school from Hogsmeade, remember?" asked Regulus.

"Sorry, no," Henry replied.

Regulus sighed. "Each house starts with no points at the beginning of the year. Then we earn points for our house by doing good stuff, like answering questions correctly or performing a task well in class, or winning the Quidditch cup. We lose the points we earn when we misbehave."

"So basically everything I do in class is not just for my own grade, but also part of a team effort?" asked Henry.

"That's right," said another voice. Hayato had just walked into the dorm.

"And the House with the most points by the end of the year wins the House cup."

"_Okay_," said Henry. "I don't understand. Shouldn't I be focusing more on my own grades and efforts, rather than on other people's? We're in Hufflepuff! We're hard workers, doesn't that mean we're already responsible enough? Why do we need this point system?"

"Hell if I know," said Hayato, lumbering towards his bed and collapsing on it. "We haven't won the house cup since I came here."

Henry and Regulus said nothing.

"I'm going back to the common room to work on my schoolwork," said Regulus.

"I'll follow you in just a sec," said Henry, looking at his school PDA that everyone had been given at breakfast. "I have mail."

Regulus nodded and left the room, the door falling shut with a click behind him.

Henry turned to his PDA.

_Dear Henry,_

_It's awfully quiet around here now that you're gone. My school doesn't start for another week, so I have a while longer to wait than you. How is life at Hogwarts? I saw the descriptions of the different houses in your student handbook before you left, and I bet you're probably in Ravenclaw, and if not that, then Hufflepuff. What house were you sorted in? I would never say this to Mom and Dad, but I'm kind of jealous. Have you made any friends? You haven't been beating yourself up too much, have you? Hopefully with a change of scenery and a chance to prove yourself, you'll be able to get some self esteem. Do you know what your power is? I have my suspicions, but I'd rather hear it from you. Keep me updated!_

_Jesse_

"You got an email from your parents?" asked Hayato.

"From my sister," Henry corrected. He took a few minutes to construct a response, then hit send.

"I wish I got emails from someone," said Hayato.

Henry looked at him surprised. "You don't get emails from anyone?"

"No," said Hayato. "Not unless you count Mrs. Binns."

"Which one?" asked Henry.

"There's only one Mrs. Binns, the math teacher who's also our head of house. You must be thinking of Ms. Binns, the social studies teacher," said Hayato.

"Why does she email you?" asked Henry.

"Disciplinary stuff. Cause I have such bad grades."

"And you don't get emails from anyone else?"

"No," said Hayato. "And she says that if I don't manage to improve my grades by the end of this year, I'll be expelled!"

Henry made his resolve. "Alright, get up."

"What?"

Come on. We're going down to the common room to do some schoolwork."

"But—"  
"No buts," said Henry. "You're a Hufflepuff, and Hufflepuffs are hard workers. That means you're not _allowed _to give up. I haven't known you for very long, but I can say you're not dumb—"

Hayato snorted.

"Okay, so you may not be the brightest tool in the shed, but you're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for. Remembering a statistic from his social studies class that afternoon, Henry said, "More than half of mentally retarded adults currently living in the midwest graduated from high school on their first or second attempt. If they can do it, you can." The statistic was bogus, of course. Ms. Binns had made it very clear that intelligence wasn't a single measurable characteristic, but an overall average of a person's aptitude based on their current performance and abilities, and IQ was not a very reliable predictor of future achievement. Nevertheless, even though it wasn't true, it still had an important truth-much like the Rutherfold model of the atom, though Henry didn't know that yet, and neither did Hayato.

Hayato, looked offended, but shrugged it off and tried to muster up his determination. With no other argument, Hayato followed Henry out of their room, towards the elevator.

"By the way, I'm Hayato Goyle."

"I know, Seth told us," said Henry. "I'm Henry Fergus."


	4. September 3rd to November 1st

It was hard work, but with Henry and Regulus's help, Hayato began to become more confident, and his grades actually started to improve.

In one memorable Mathematics class, Hayato more than completed a factor tree. He included the prime numbers as factors, each of them with a "1" next to it. When Mrs. Binns asked him why he did that, he said, in complete honesty, "Because it's a factor tree, and obviously trees are supposed to have roots, right?"

Mrs. Binns couldn't argue with that.

Another class that was very enjoyable was Flying.

"First thing's first," said Madam Leopard. "Starting your bike. Stick your dominant hand over your bike, and say 'up'. The majority of you will have to actually touch your bikes, though."

The first year, Block B (and some C) students did exactly what she said. Absolutely nothing whatsoever happened.

"Come on! Did Instructor Hayne teach you nothing?"

"Madam, we're still only covering the theory," said Katie Martin, her long brown ponytail swishing as she turned to face the teacher. Frustrated with this, she tried to redo her ponytail.

"In that case..." She began going around, tapping the power button on each bike herself. "And please don't do that here, Miss Martin."

Once all the bikes were turned on and were hovering in the air, Madam Leopard told them to mount their bikes. This was done pretty much the same way as mounting a horse, by sticking your foot in the pedal, swinging your leg over and sticking your other foot in the other pedal, then strapping/buckling them in.

"Now, look carefully at your bikes. See the handle bars? You squeeze those to break. To accelerate, push back on the pedals. The farther you push them, the faster you'll go. On my whistle, you are going to take turns flying at ground level. Mr. Goyle is first. Everybody else dismount!"

Hayato's face paled.

"You will stop at the tree over there, and then you will come back. Do not go up; stay close to the ground. Get ready, Mr. Goyle." Hayato was slightly trembling now. "3, 2-"

Hayato tried to make himself as small as possible, pressing himself flat against the bike, and in doing so accidentally accelerated.

"Mr. Goyle!"

Hayato was clutching his bike for dear life, speeding all over the place, having completely lost control.

"Mr. Goyle, come back here this instant!"

Hayato's bike flipped upside-down. He screamed as he flew into the tree that had been indicated. His bike got caught on a weak branch.

Madam Leopard sighed and rushed over to catch him when the branch inevitably snapped.

Hayato fainted.

"No one is to move while I take Mr. Goyle up to the Hospital wing. Not an inch, you hear? If I see a single bike in the air, you will be out of Hogwarts before anyone can say 'Quidditch'.

Sandra Brown noticed a glint in the grass. She walked over and picked up Hayato's school PDA. It had fallen from his pocket.

"I wonder how much this'll sell for?"

Regulus's eyes bulged, but he dared not stand up to his sister.

Somebody else did dare, though. Mike Greene, a dark-skinned, dark-haired Gryffindor boy with glasses, stepped forward.

"Give it here, Brown," he ordered, a hint of a threat in his voice.

"No. I think I'll leave this somewhere for Goyle to find. How about...up a tree?"

She mounted her bike and took off into the air, as several of her Slytherin friends laughed.

"Who wants to play a game of catch?" she asked.

Three Slytherin girls joined her.

Mike mounted his bike.

"Are you crazy!" said Regulus. "Didn't you hear Madam Leopard? You'll be expelled!"

Mike ignored him, and blasted into the air.

"What an idiot," Regulus muttered. Henry had to agree.

"Give it here Brown or I'll knock you off your bike!"

"Is that so?"

Mike rushed at her. She dodged.

"Okay, okay, you can have the stupid thing!" said Sandra. She wound back her arm and then threw Hayato's PDA as hard and far as she could.

Mike rushed after it. Time felt like it was slowing down for a moment as it neared the side of the building...

And then he caught it. All of the Block A first years but the Slytherins cheered or sighed in relief as Mike touched down to the ground, people hugged him and congratulated him, and then-

"Mike Greene!" said Mr. Nelson. "Follow me."

Mr. Nelson led him away from the class.

Everyone was sure he would be expelled.

As it turned out, he wasn't. Nobody knew why.

Nobody knew why, that is, until the Gryffindor Quidditch team tryouts, when all applicants to the position of "seeker" were turned down.

Rumors of who had been picked flooded around the school for several days, but the first years knew immediately who it was.

"I can't believe this! They're rewarding him for bad behavior!" said Regulus.

Hayato glared at him.

"Okay, maybe not that bad..."

"No, Regulus is right," said Henry. "He could have been killed. They should have expelled him, yet instead they're just putting him on the team when normally first years aren't allowed anyway."

Before they knew it, it was nearly the end of October, and Thanksgiving and Halloween were near.

Originally in the United States, Thanksgiving had officially been the 4th Thursday in November. However, in order to better recognize all the other countless thanksgivings and harvest holidays celebrated in different subcultures (and so that it would be on the same date every year), it was moved to the day after Halloween. People still celebrated their own individual cultures' Fall holidays, but the official Thanksgiving of all three nations of the United Republics of North America was the day after Halloween, November 1st. (In Mexico it was a day later.)

In spanish class, they learned about the Mexican version of Halloween, "el Dia de los Muertos" or "the day of the dead". In Mrs. Binns's class, they worked on Halloween and Thanksgiving related activity sheets, and in Social Studies, for the first time ever, Ms. Binns let them have a free period in Social Studies. (This was not out of the kindness of her heart. It was her father's "death day".)

Soon enough Halloween itself arrived, and there was a spectacular feast. However, the Thanksgiving feast was truly a sight to behold. The Hogwarts cooks had really outdone themselves.

Regulus convinced Henry try something called a "latke", a pancake made of shredded potato that Hayato insisted was really good with applesauce. Naturally, Henry tried it plain. Then he dipped it in sour cream. It was definitely better than Hayato's idea of dipping it in applesauce.

There was so much turkey: white meat, dark meat, legs, ribs, breasts, wings, and even some that were from imported species, all seasoned in different ways.

For some reason, Instructor Hayne had yet to be seen. Why wasn't he here yet?

Right on cue, one of the sets of double doors at the entrance to the hall opened, and Instructor Hayne limped in. People stopped eating and stared at him as he passed. He was bleeding and bruised in several places on his body. His bald head had several cuts on it, and his clothes were torn; He looked like he had gotten into a fight. Finally, after what seemed to be an age, he approached the staff table at the front of the hall, and rasped,

"Intruder, I...tried to stop them...thought you should know."

Then he fainted.

Students began to panic. Mr. Rooney stood up.

"Quiet!"

Nobody heard him. While Mr. Rooney tried to figure out what to do, Mr. Richards (the head janitor in case you've forgotten) shouted at the top of his lungs, "SHADDUP!"

That got everyone's attention.

"Everyone please," Mr. Rooney pleaded. "Don't panic. Now, the-the heads of houses and I will go to the entrance hall to apprehend the intruder."

He was careful to say "apprehend" and not "find".

"Everyone else, please head back to your common rooms in an orderly fashion. After this is over, dinner will be brought to you there."

Mr. Rooney, Mr. Nelson, Mrs. Binns, Dr. Cook and the English teacher, Ms. Georgina (she preferred to be called by her first name.) rushed out the doors of the Great Hall ahead of everyone else. The remaining teachers divided everyone into groups based on their house, year and block, and then escorted them out of the hall.

By the time they reached the Hufflepuff common room, Everyone was whispering about what had just happened. Eventually, pretty much everyone agreed that whoever the intruder was, he or she must have had powerful hackers at their disposal. If anyone had doubted Hypnos's involvement before, they probably didn't now.

Henry's mind was whirring. He wasn't sure he believed that story. Someone had tried to break in-perhaps to hide, to hurt people, or..._to steal something_.

_"Gringotts is probably the safest building on the continent, unless you count Hogwarts."_

But then, did that mean a teacher had _let_ the intruder in?

Henry didn't dare voice his suspicions, but he resolved to keep a closer eye on Instructor Hayne from now on.


	5. November: Quidditch!

There was no other explanation. Hogwarts was not about education. It was not about learning, or making friends, or preparing oneself for the future. No. Hogwarts was about Quidditch. Henry was quick to learn this as the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match neared. It seemed to be all anyone was willing to talk about—even Regulus, and he was normally very easy to talk to.

In fact, it was so bad that people actually _fought_ over it. And it wasn't just arguments, either. A Slytherin sixth year had tried to physically attack Mike Greene, who everyone now knew was the Gryffindor seeker. The first year had been deeply startled by this, but it only strengthened his resolve to win. Somehow, many of the students focused more on this failed punch than what happened to the Slytherin seeker just the other day; He had been the target of a cruel and rather discriminatory prank: to keep him from playing, someone had stolen his wheelchair and dropped it from the roof. Needless to say, someone was suspended.

After the occurrence, Mike was escorted to all his classes by an entourage of bodyguards (mostly upper year Gryffindors), and so the frequency of such dramatic pregame strategies (which were already few and far between) diminished.

But the enmity between Gryffindor and Slytherin did not diminish. And to make things worse, Henry had to share classes with _both _of them.

He didn't understand why the first years were so into it, though. Most of them had barely been at Hogwarts for more than two months, and they already were starting to hate each other's guts over it. And the teachers didn't seem to be doing very well dealing with it. They almost, in a way, seemed to be encouraging it.

Some of the teachers got more lenient in discipline when they were hyped up on Quidditch. Many teachers seemed to consider most offenses more tolerable from those about to play a game, then from those who weren't. Finally, in one fateful art class, Henry snapped.

Mr. Nelson had given them a free period that day, and, forgetting that half of the Block B first years from all four houses were in the room at once, had actually _left the room_. He told them he'd be in his office, if anybody needed him. Once again, the disruptive power of the Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry would rear its ugly head.

Sandra Brown was throwing spit wads at Mike Greene's head, who was doing his best to ignore her. After a minute of it, he couldn't take any more. He turned around to glare at her. She smiled sweetly and stopped for a while after he had turned back around. And then she started doing it again.

"Will you quit that!"

"I was training you," said Sandra. "And you'll need to be able to dodge bludgers better than that if you want to survive your first Quidditch match."

Mike resisted the urge to throw another spit wad back. Instead, he drew a crude picture of her saying "I'm a one eyed, one horned, flying purple paper eater."

He showed it to her.

"Why you little…"

Soon enough, they were at each other's throats, shouting verbal abuses at each other, rapidly getting louder and louder the longer they were at it. By the time they had started insulting each other's families, Henry had had enough.

"Will you both just SHUT UP? I'm trying to work!"

This turned out to be a big mistake on Henry's part, as all the anger and aggression they had been building up towards each other was now being directed at him, and they were both shouting at him now.

Henry resisted the urge to slap them both silly, and he almost didn't hear Mike Greene yell, "I thought you'd at least be grateful—"

"_Grateful_? Grateful for _what_!"

"Because I risked my neck to save your friend's hide!"

"And you _shouldn't _have! Don't you remember Mr. Rooney saying at the beginning of the year, that if anyone dies here it could have serious repercussions for all of us?"

"Well, I _didn't _die," said Mike, arrogantly. "And Hayato got his PDA back!"

"And so now that that's said and done, the two of you thought it was okay to start loudly going at it like _stupid Slytherins and Gryffindors. _Meanwhile, I've been trying to help Hayato finish his English assignment that was due three days ago! And you expect me to be _grateful_?"

"What seems to be the problem?" asked Mr. Nelson, who had just left his office, in a calm and stern "let's solve this conflict" sort of voice, even though he looked like he was livid and trying not to be. It was the last straw.

"What took you so long! Did you expect us all to just solve our own problems?"

"Mr. Fergus—"

"Did you think that if you just let things run their course long enough, we'd become _sensible_ and _mature_ enough to solve our conflicts peacefully? Or maybe you were _afraid_. You heard us yelling, and you were afraid that if you came in and yelled at us right away, that we would _yell back_."

Quite a few students were giving Henry extremely angry looks; Mr. Nelson was the favorite teacher of much of the student population. Henry didn't notice, and plowed on. "So you thought it would be best to wait for us to calm down a bit so that we'd be easier to control, so that when you did step in, you'd still look to the rest of the class like an _efficient disciplinarian_."

"Detention, Mr. Fergus!" said Mr. Nelson, sharply. "Saturday, night, my office, for the rest of the month!"

There was a short silence, and then…  
"So _I'm _the only one with detention? Why is _that_?" asked Henry, dangerously. "Those two deserve detention just as much as I do!"

Mr. Nelson's eyebrows rose. For a moment, Henry wondered if he had misjudged the situation—

"Mr. Greene is exempt because he has Quidditch practice—"

He hadn't.

"Of course! That's what it all boils down to, doesn't it? Quidditch!"

And with that, Henry grabbed his things, and stormed out of the room.

That is why, when the first match of the year between Gryffindor and Slytherin began that Saturday morning, Henry did not attend. As it turned out, neither had Instructor Hayne.

Henry found him pacing the corridor next to the entrance to Mr. Rooney's office.

After a while of pacing and muttering, he began to walk away. Henry made to follow him, but then something yanked on his arm and pulled him back behind a pillar.

"Why aren't you at the game, Mr. Fergus?" a voice hissed.

It was Dr. Cook.

"I hate Quidditch," Henry replied.

"I do too, but the headmaster still insists I attend," said Dr. Cook. "And fifteen points from Hufflepuff, by the way."

"What for?"

"For a complete and utter lack of common sense. If you're going to follow someone, you should be _sneaky_."

Dr. Cook threw a camouflage cloak over his shoulders, making himself invisible to almost anyone who didn't know what they were looking for.

"Go back to your common room, and don't get any more involved in this," he said, harshly. "I'll take it from here."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

"So you're saying," Regulus started. "That whatever's being guarded on the third floor—Instructor Hayne is after it?"

Henry nodded.

"And Dr. Cook suspects him too," He added, helpfully.

Regulus frowned thoughtfully. "It is kind of fishy. But why would Mr. Rooney even hire someone like that? They do all sorts of security stuff nowadays to prevent dangerous people from being hired in jobs like these."

"But even Mr. Rooney isn't infallible," said Henry.

"Yeah, he even forgets his birthday sometimes!" added Hayato helpfully.

Henry and Regulus looked at him strangely.

"I uhh, once heard him say that his birthday was March 2nd, even though everyone knows it's April 1st! He did correct himself afterwards, though."

"In any case, we can't go around saying this stuff, since we don't have any real proof yet," said Regulus.

"You're telling me?" asked Henry.

"I'm telling both of you," Regulus corrected, which translated as "I know you know, I was only telling Hayato, but don't tell him that because it'll hurt his feelings."

Hayato understood anyways, but appreciated the gesture, all the same.

"I still think we should keep an eye on him, though," said Henry. "Dr. Cook may think he can do everything on his own, but having a dangerous criminal for a teacher could be, well…"

"Dangerous?" asked Regulus, skeptically. "He's barely moved us past the theory since the beginning of the year. The only practical things we've done are meditation and yoga poses. Still, I agree, we should keep an eye on him, just in case."


	6. November: Detention in the Forest

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Detention with Mr. Nelson was just as detentions were supposed to be: grueling and dull. Even though he knew he deserved it, especially for spectacularly contributing to the disruption he had originally been trying to stop during that dreadful art class earlier that month, Henry couldn't help being angry at Mr. Nelson.

"_Mr. Greene is exempt because he has Quidditch practice."_

Quidditch practice didn't last all month! Mr. Nelson could have given Mike a detention scheduled after the match! And what about Sandra? She wasn't even on a sports team! Why couldn't she have been punished along with him?

The unfairness of it all rankled Henry. Why did Mr. Nelson single him out?

Henry could only come to the conclusion that Mr. Nelson didn't like him.

All of them had done wrong, and yet Henry was the only one being punished.

Looking at the messy art room, and trying not to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work ahead of him, Henry imagined Mike Green, Sandra Brown and even Mr. Nelson being forced to work with him. The image brought a small smile to his face. He scrubbed harder.

One day two weeks before the end of his detentions, Henry woke up to a loud _bark_.

Why would there be a dog in their dormitory? They weren't allowed. Some pets were: frogs, toads, mice, hamsters, insect farms, and even certain well-behaved birds, as long as they were kept in cages when they were supposed to be. But dogs? Was he imagining things? Henry turned over to face the noise and opened his eyes blearily.

What he saw was not a dog, but a _baby_ _wolf_, sitting on the end of Hayato's bed. As soon as it saw Henry looking at it, the wolf gave a small growl, startling Henry, before going back to its attempts to wake up Hayato.

In the bunk above Henry, Regulus pulled his pillow tight over his head. Neither Hayato nor Henry saw or noticed.

Finally, Hayato sat up, and the little wolf wagged its tail and barked joyfully.

Regulus turned over and blearily opened his eyes, and stared in shock at the beast on the end of Hayato's bed.

The wolf looked up to see Regulus staring at it, and growled.

Neither Henry or Regulus spoke for a moment. Finally, Regulus said, "Hayato…why is there a wolf cub in our dorm?"

"Uhh…"

"Hayato?"

"Look," said Hayato defensively. "I found him on the grounds last night, he was starving! So I carried him inside and fed him. That's all."

"That's all?" asked Regulus incredulously. "It's a wolf! I'm pretty sure those aren't allowed."

"Nate wouldn't hurt anybody! It's not his fault that he was born the way he is!"

Both Henry and Regulus looked at the wolf. It growled.

"You do realize that this is a _wolf_ we're taking about here, right? A dangerous clawing, biting ferocious wild beast?" asked Regulus.

"Well technically, dogs are just wolves that have been domesticated," Henry pointed out.

"You're not helping," said Regulus.

But no matter how hard they tried, despite the fact that it was against the rules, even though they had classes, and even though there was no way they could keep a _wolf _hidden in their dorm unnoticed for long, Henry and Regulus could not coax Hayato into parting with his beloved new friend. And so they went to class, leaving Hayato behind, because there was no way in hell they'd let a wolf stay in their dorm unsupervised.

On the last day of his detentions, as Henry made to collect his cleaning supplies, Mr. Nelson stopped him.

"You won't need to be doing that today. Your final detention has been postponed to later tonight."

"Why?"

"Some of Dr. Ann's colleagues are unavailable, and she requires assistance with her work for Eelops."

Henry's stomach dropped. Unless he was very much mistaken, this meant that he would be in the _Forest _that night.

Henry wasn't the only one who was going to the forest that evening. After dinner, Dr. Anne collected not only him, but also Mike Greene and Sandra Brown.

The entire trip from the Great Hall to the preserve was silent, save Sandra's angry mutterings. Henry thought he heard her saying things like, "The forest!" and "When my parents hear about this…"

When they arrived at the entrance gate, Dr. Ann turned around to face them.

"Alright, let's get down to business. In case you don't already know, I only work at Hogwarts part-time. The rest of the time I am an ecologist working for Eelops. For the past couple of months, more and more specimens have been reported missing. Since a few of my colleagues are on vacation, we are slightly short of staff who can take census. And that's where you come in."

She handed each of them an iPad. Sandra looked at hers in disgust.

"What are we supposed to do with this ancient piece of junk?" she asked.

"I know it's outdated, but for our purposes, it's enough. You are to record exactly how many of each specimen you can find from the list assigned to you."

Dr. Ann then gave them each a walkie-talkie and a flashlight.

"Although the iPads have a map of the preserve, I'm not taking any chances. If you get lost, tell me and I will send someone your way. I'll tell you when it's time to leave."

She turned towards the gate and flashed her ID card and it opened.

"I will escort each of you to your area. If you need help, particularly if you need first-aid, alert me or the park ranger nearest to you. I'm pretty sure you don't need help to figure out how to use the census app or the flashlight. So, I think that's it. Let's go."

Counting the specimens was rather tedious, and while they made for interesting scenery, more than once Henry wished that they were doing more than counting them.

There were some specimens that Henry couldn't find at all. Bats and large spiders were hard to come by, and he looked all over for the Amanita Muscaria (a type of hallucinogenic fungus) which was supposed to be in an area warded off by a plastic fence, and couldn't find it. He did find the fence though, but there was nothing behind it. Henry's area started right at the mouth of a cave, and he knew he couldn't go in very far because there were a couple large mammals that lived in the preserve, some of which were carnivorous, and he didn't want to disturb them. Nevertheless, Henry thought it might be a good idea just to go in a few feet looking for any insects or bats. Any dangerous creatures would probably be sleeping farther back in the cave.

Unfortunately, one of the cave's denizens hadn't made it all the way back to their den.

The wolf looked up at Henry, and growled.

"You should stay back," said a park ranger who was attending to her. "This is one paranoid she-wolf. She was attacked by a poacher yesterday."

"A poacher?" asked Henry.

"Yeah. A bullet to the side and a poison dart to the leg. On top of that, her cub is missing."

The park ranger looked grave.

"This preserve has a really good security system—almost as good as Gringotts. Nothing's supposed to be able to get in without Eelop's say so, or at least our knowledge. I think that the poacher, whoever they are, is extremely dangerous, to be able to get past that. It makes me wonder why they think it's a good idea to allow students in here right now. It's not safe."

Henry heard footsteps. The wolf growled and tried to stand up, but stumbled.

"Who's there?" the ranger demanded.

A dark-caped and hooded figure wearing a white mask appeared out of the darkness, and pointed a gun at them.

"Step away from the wolf," said the masked figure. The voice sounded familiar.

Trembling, Henry stepped away, but the ranger didn't budge; he was frozen in shock.

"I said, step away from the wolf!"

"This is a wildlife preserve! You can't just _take_ specimens! Don't' you understand the damage you're doing to the ecosystem!"

The gun fired. The bullet missed its mark, sailing over the ranger's shoulder, but it had the intended effect. Both Henry and the ranger flinched.

"The next one won't miss."

Henry was thinking fast. Both he and the park ranger were unarmed. They were trapped and helpless. _Help._ That was the one, only word that Henry could think of. Over and over again, _help, help, help. _He would only have one shot at this. Henry mustered as much courage as he could, and then he ran.

"You have till the count of—hey! Come back here!"

"HELP!" Henry shouted into the walkie-talkie. "POACHER—" Henry felt a sharp, stabbing pain shoot through his leg and he screamed as he fell forwards, face hitting the ground. Everything went dark.


	7. December 8th to March 7th

Henry blearily woke up to the sterile white environment of the Hogwarts hospital wing. It disoriented him. Why wasn't he waking in his dormitory?

Then it all came back to him. He had been serving detention in the forest. He had met a park ranger tending to an injured wolf mother, and a masked poacher had attacked them. Henry had been shot in the leg trying to escape, and he fell…

"It's good to see you awake, Mr. Fergus."

A really short lady with wavy black hair pulled into a bun entered the room. It was Nurse Pam, one of the school nurses.

"You were out for a week. To think, you had a bullet wound to the leg and then a concussion too! And yet you have no infections, only a small bone fracture, and no lasting brain trauma! I can't even begin to say how ridiculously lucky you are. If Dr. Ann's associates hadn't found you in time…"

Henry wasn't listening to her. He was in shock, and the scene from the forest kept replaying in his head. While he tried to think of a way to distract himself, He reached down and touched the place on his leg were his wound was. It was in a cast.

"Are you even listening to me? I said to leave it alone!"

Startled, Henry jolted his hand away from his cast.

Tentatively, he asked, "Do you know how much longer I'm going to be in here?

"For about a month or so I'm afraid," said Nurse Pam. And then you're going to need to use crutches for a while. Really, why they let you in the forest when there were crooks about I have no idea. As if two life-threatening incidents weren't enough for this year…"

She glanced sympathetically towards a familiar dark-complexioned first-year and walked away towards her office as Henry did a double take. It was Mike Greene.

As if sensing Henry's gaze, Mike opened his eyes and glared back before Henry had the chance to look away.

"What is this, a zoo?" asked Mike. "You're in the hospital wing too, you know, it's not that strange a sight. You're not hitting on me, are you?"

"Are you saying I was staring at you?" asked Henry incredulously. "Because I wasn't. I only just noticed you were here as you woke up. And what does 'hitting on someone mean' anyway?"

Mike looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure that it has something to do with dating though."

"Uggh, I don't want to date you!"

Mike frowned. Realizing that he might have said something offensive, Henry added, "No offense, I don't mean that I think you'd be a horrible date, uh I mean, I don't think I swing that way…but I'm not into all that mushy romantic stuff yet anyway, so…"

This was getting awkward. He was trying to explain that he was still at the so-called "cootie" stage, but because he accidentally said something offensive, he lost his handle on the situation.

"Whatever," said Mike, not paying attention. Then he asked, "Why haven't you been attending the Quidditch games?"

"I don't like Quidditch," said Henry.

"But it's a school wide-event," Mike pressed. "Everybody goes to them. Including all of the teachers, and you know they don't like leaving us first years wandering the building unsupervised."

"But Dr. Cook and Instructor Hayne didn't go to the first one," said Henry.

Mike frowned suspiciously. "Did you see them?"

"Yes," said Henry.

"What were they doing?"

Henry hesitated. He didn't want to spread his and Dr. Cook's suspicion of Instructor Hayne, since they didn't have any real proof yet. So instead he asked a question back to Mike.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I think one of them is trying to kill me," said Mike.

Henry was stunned. "You think Instructor Hayne is trying to _kill_ you?" and then he clapped his hand over his mouth.

"Instructor Hayne? Why do you think it's him and not Dr. Cook?" Mike narrowed his eyes. "You know something, don't you." It was not a question.

Henry sighed. "You remember that time there was an intruder?"

"Yeah," said Mike. "The one who beat up Instructor Hayne on Halloween. How could I forget?"

"I think he was faking it," said Henry.

Mike raised his eyebrows. "Didn't you see his injuries?" he asked incredulously. "And he fainted, right in the middle of the dining hall!"

"Think about it," Henry argued. "He was the only teacher to arrive late to the Halloween feast. Who else could have let in the intruder?"

"What makes you think the intruder was _let_ in?" asked Mike. "Perhaps he got in of his own accord."

Henry thought about it for a moment before saying, "Why didn't any security alarms go off then? Why did we have to wait to find out from Instructor Hayne?"

Mike still looked skeptical. "I don't know. Maybe the intruder found a way to disable them before he got in?" He didn't look so sure of that though.

"Why would Instructor Hayne be trying to kill you though?" Henry asked. Mike didn't answer.

They sat in silence for the rest of the day, each of them absorbed in their own thoughts, and then later using their school PDA's to browse the internet, check their email and the like.

Over the next few weeks, Henry recieved his homework through email or delivery from Regulus or Hayato, during which he told them what had happened. They also sent him news about goings-on outside the hospital wing. Most of the information was irrelevant to Henry, but he did find out about how Mike Greene got in the hospital wing earlier that month. He was injured during the December Grydfindor vs. Huflepuff Quidditch match because his bike's computer had been tampered with, causing the autopilot to turn on and keep changing directions unpredictably and zooming all over the place. It was a good thing that Quidditch matches took place in the Gymnasium where there was a safety net, or he would have been a lot worse for wear. Hayato and Regulus had already turned in the missing wolf-cub to Eelop's, though they had to smuggle him out and make it look like they had just found him on the grounds, and not like they had been keeping him in their dorm. Dr. Ann was suspicious that the cub seemed so well-cared for, but she couldn't prove anything, so Hayato didn't get in trouble.

For Christmas he had received candy from Regulus and Hayato, and a highly anticipated historical simulation videogame from Jesse, the one he had waited to buy nearly all his life.

It was from a Japanese RPG series called "Sekai no Yugi" or "The World's Game" although in the U.S. it was commonly just called "The Game". The Game took place during the environmental crisis of the 21st century, and followed the lives of people who lived in that time period. It had amazing storyline, but players had slightly less power over character customization. This turned out to be an asset to the game though, as it allowed for the character to be part of a very rich virtual world, that formed itself based on the player's original characterization of the main character and the characters around him or her. It used a lot of data from the social sciences available in the 2200's, which made it one of the most realistic and advanced role playing games to date, and it was also widely considered one of the greatest games of all time. And best of all, since it was several hundred years old and out-of-date with more current social science, it was a lot cheaper than one might expect

Nevertheless, it made Henry feel really guilty that he couldn't get anything for her, or for anyone else. Although it wasn't really his fault because he didn't get an allowance, and because he was stuck in the hospital wing.

Henry was relieved when he was finally free to leave the hospital wing. That relief was diminished somewhat from the pain of using the crutches though. It was a good thing that Hogwarts was a school with no staircases. Instead, elevators and walkways were used to get around. Another good thing was that because he had been injured, Henry hadn't had to go home for winter holidays. Thinking about that made Henry realize that his first year at Hogwarts so far was the longest time he had ever kept any friends other than his older sister Jesse since he was very little. He didn't know why that was, and he didn't know how long it was going to last, but it was a welcome change. He didnt know if that was the reason a surprising number of people had wanted to sign his cast, though. Considering that there were a lot more people who signed Mike Greene's casts even though he had been released from the hospital wing over a week after Henry, he supposed that people just liked signing casts. Or maybe it was just that Mike had more casts to sign. Eventually, however, Mike's casts ran out of writing space, and people gradually lost interest. By mid-January, both of their injuries had healed, and many people had forgotten about the incidents that had caused them, believing that since there were no more incidents after that, that the culprit had been caught. By March, everyone, the teachers especially were stressed about final exams, which were fast approaching.

During one Social Studies class in March, Mike's father came as a guest speaker. This was a big deal, because as it turned out, Metabiological Security Officer Thorald Greene was a legendary hero from the war on Hypnos and his followers. (Of course, so was Mr. Rooney, but he was the Principal, so everyone was used to him.) Strangely, even though it was a presentation for all of the Block B first years, Mike was nowhere to be seen. As the class ended and everyone began filing out of the crowded room, Officer Greene received a phone call.

"Instructor Hayne? What! Are you serious? Alright, I'm on my way."

He darted out of the room, pushing past all of the students and being careful not to knock any of them over.

"So cool..."

"He's like those special agents that you see on TV!"

"I wanna be just like him."

While his classmates were busy being awestruck, Henry was worried. He didn't trust Instructor Hayne. Since he had no more classes that day, Henry decided to follow Mr. Greene. He walked down the corridor away from the other first years, and once he was out of sight, he broke into a run. If his suspicions were correct, he would know where to go.

A few minutes later, he reached the third floor just in time to see Officer Greene enter the forbidden corridor.


	8. Into the Forbidden Corridor

It was a trap. Henry was almost positive of it. Instructor Hayne had lured Officer Greene to the forbidden corridor. But who could Henry tell? Who would believe him?

Henry took the main elevator to the basement, and went to find Dr. Cook, who would have been in his office about then. But Dr. Cook wasn't there. He ran back to the main elevator and hit the button to go back to the third floor. Hayato and Regulus had seen him and ran through just as the transparent elevator doors shut .

"Are you okay, Henry? You look you were in a hurry," said Regulus. As the elevator began to climb.

"There isn't much time, Officer Greene just went into the forbidden corridor a couple of minutes ago. I think Instructor Hayne must have lured him there for some reason to help him get whatever's hidden inside. We need to find Dr. Cook, and if I'm right, then he'll be investigating in Instructor Hayne's private quarters."

Regulus and Hayato looked just as scared as Henry felt, but they nodded.

The elevator stopped on the third floor, the doors opened, and the three of them ran out into the corridor on the left-hand side, and didn't stop until they had reached Instructor Hayne's office. Dr. Cook was on the floor of the office in front of the entrance to Hayne's personal quarters, knocked out cold.

They carefully stepped over Dr. Cook and entered the room. Almost as soon as they entered, they heard a banging noise coming from the wardrobe on the left wall, and someone shouting, "Someone let me out of here!"

Henry and his friends quickly ran over, unlatched the door of the wardrobe and opened it, as Mike Greene jumped out.

Instead of thanking them, though, he said, "Have any of you seen my dad?"

"He's in the forbidden corridor, we have to—"

Mike ran out of the room.

"Tell the principal…" Henry finished.

"Quick, we have to stop him!" said Regulus.

The three of them ran after Mike. They reached the forbidden corridor just as he slipped inside, the door shutting behind him.

"Great, we're too late," said Hayato.

Henry approached the door. "Not necessarily."

"Are you crazy? Mr. Rooney told us at the beginning of the year that nobody should enter unless they have a death wish! Do you want to die!"

"No," said Henry. "And neither does Mike. And if Instructor Hayne is already in there, then some of the security system in there may have already been deactivated. And if it's not, then every second we waste Mike could be getting into more and more danger. We need to find him and convince him to come back."

Regulus gulped and said, "Okay, but first…" then he took out his PDA and texted the Front Office.

"There," he said. "Now they know where we're going. So we'll have backup."

"Are you sure about this?" asked Hayato.

Henry nodded. The three of them turned back to the door. Suddenly Henry was gripped by fear. What would they find on the other side? Would they survive? But Henry reminded himself that they needed to do this. Mike was in danger, and there was no one else there to help him. Steeling himself, Henry opened the door.

The three of them hurried inside and shut the door behind them.

It was very bright in there. The floor, the ceiling, and the walls were glowing with fluorescent light. They noticed a lot of video cameras with laser guns mounted on them poking through holes in the walls and ceiling. None of them were moving. Cautiously, Henry began to walk slowly through the corridor, Regulus and Hayato following close behind. None of the cameras noticed them. They weren't even turned on. Eventually, they reached a large automatic sliding trap door in the floor. It was halfway open, and it wasn't closing. Looking down, all they could see was darkness.

In big bold type on the trapdoor it said that they had to fall in feet first.

"On the count of three, we jump," said Regulus.

"1…2…3!" They jumped, and fell into the darkness.

They landed on a cushion of some sort. Immediately, Henry heard the whirring of machinery, and felt something grab his arms and legs so he couldn't move. A back and headrest came into place behind him, and he felt something wrap around his temple. Everything turned black.

Henry, Regulus and Hayato found themselves standing in a large room, with a wooden trap door in the floor. In front of them was a giant sleeping three-headed dog.

"What the heck!" exclaimed Regulus.

"Our minds must be in a virtual world," said Henry. "This has to be the security system. I'm guessing either the virtual dangers affect our real bodies the same way as our virtual ones, or those machines we were strapped into will inject us with a fatal poison if we die here."

The three-headed dog woke up, and began barking at them. It tried to take a bite out of Regulus and Henry, but they jumped out of the way.

_The dog was sleeping before, and our voices sound the same here, _thought Hayato. _So maybe…_

He began to sing a lullaby. Hayato actually had a pretty decent singing voice. The three-headed dog slowed down and stopped attacking Henry and Regulus so that it could listen. Eventually, it's eyes began to droop, and it fell asleep.

The wooden trap door unlocked.

"How did you know that singing would put it to sleep?" asked Regulus, awed.

"My mom used to own a farm," said Hayato. "She taught me that the main trick to taming any creature is to know how to calm it."

They opened the trap door and jumped inside. They landed in something soft and squishy, which immediately began to wrap it's leafy tendrils around their legs. The three of them struggled to break free, but it only caused whatever it was to wrap around them tighter. Henry tried to pull it off with his hands, and it wrapped around those too, when he tried to pull them out, it started going up his arms. Then he noticed that the part of the plant that was wrapped around his legs wasn't getting any tighter. He tried to wiggle his toes. The plant extended tiny tendrils to wrap around those to hold them in place.

"Don't move!" Henry shouted to his friends, who were still struggling. "This thing is motion-sensitive!"

As soon as he said that, a plant tendril shot in front of his face and tightened around his mouth.

Regulus and Hayato did as he said, and the plant let go of them and they fell through its branches and leaves to the ground below, where they found Mike Greene standing, bruised and battered, breathing heavily.

Mike heard them and turned around.

"Hey," he said.

"You look terrible!" said Regulus.

"And you look relatively unscathed," Mike replied. "I almost got killed twice back there. Nearly eaten by the giant three-headed dog until I found a flute, and then I was almost suffocated by that plant thing. I suppose you came to take me back, huh?"

"Yeah," said Henry.

"We'll I'm not going back," said Mike. "Not until I've found Dad. Besides, there's no way out but forward here." He gestured around him.

Mike entered the next room.

"He's crazy!" said Regulus. "Doesn't he get that he could _die_?"

"I guess not," said Hayato. He slumped down on the floor and said frustratedly, "Have we come all this way for nothing?"

"No," said Henry. "Just because Mike doesn't want to go back doesn't mean we're going to let him stay here. As soon as we all find a way out of this virtual world, we're going to knock him out and drag him to the principal's office, and tell Mr. Rooney what happened down here.

"But in order to do that, won't we have to get out before Mike does?" asked Hayato.

They all looked at each other, startled. Mike may have already gotten quite a ways ahead of them. They opened the next door and ran through. There were three doors in the room other than the one they entered from. Mike suddenly entered the room behind them.

"What! How did you guys get ahead of me?"

"We just entered," said Regulus.

"Just great," said Mike. It's impossible to tell where I am in this maze. Almost all of the rooms look exactly alike, and I almost got killed by a booby trap in the last one."

"Mike, do you still have that flute on you?" asked Henry.

"No, it disappeared when I fell into the plant thing," said Mike. "Why—oh! I see," he began to take off his shoes and place them in the center of the room.

"Why's he doing that?" asked Hayato.

"To mark that we've been here," said Mike.

"That's a great idea!" said Regulus.

"Of course, there's also the chance that this virtual world won't retain memory of items we leave in rooms that we are no longer in, or get too far away from," said Henry.

"Uh-oh," said Hayato.

"If that's the case we'd be stuck here!" Regulus worried.

"Only until a teacher comes and lets us out," said Henry.

"If they can let us out," said Mike. "My dad might be the only one who knows how to get through this place. I'll explain on the way."

As it turned out, Mike's father possessed a powerful machine known as a Metaphysiological Power Amplification Device, commonly referred to as a Powerup Stone, which was stored at the end of the forbidden corridor. Powerup Stones were originally created during the war, and weren't normally allowed to be sold or used anymore. However, Officer Greene was a special case. He had become dependant on the stone during the war, and if he were to stop using it, he would be facing extremely debilitating withdrawal symptoms. Furthermore, he was a single parent, and if he stopped using the Powerup Stone, then he would become unfit for his job, and wouldn't be able to support himself and Mike financially.

It took a long time, and they had to start over from the beginning several times, but they managed, through sheer dumb luck and all of them taking off their virtual shoes and later their virtual socks as they progressed, to find the path to the exit of the maze.

They had tried to get out in front of Mike, but he would have none of it. He shoved past them through the larger door and disappeared. Henry, Regulus and Hayato quickly followed behind him.

As soon as Henry stepped through, everything went dark, and then he woke up.


	9. A Hayneous Encounter: Enter Lt Movieman

The chair he was sitting in released him, and he stepped onto the real floor, or at least, he hoped it was the real floor. He looked down. His shoes were on, and he had no bruises from the plant thing. Regulus and Hayato stepped out of their chairs after he did. There was a fourth chair that was empty. They looked up. They couldn't see the hole they had originally fallen through. Either that meant that they were still in the virtual world, or…

Henry looked at the floor. The chairs were on a magnetic track that extended all the way down the hall behind them. And in front of them. Mike was typing into a computer.

The words, "Access granted," flashed across the screen. And Mike hurried into the next room, The three of them ran forward and tried to get in before the automatic door could slide closed. Only Henry succeeded. He tried to pull it back open, but as he suspected, it wouldn't budge.

"You!" Mike said incredulously, staring at the far side of the ancient-looking one-room laboratory, where Instructor Hayne was standing over a quarantine pod holding Mike's unconscious father inside. Henry turned away from the door just as Hayne turned away from the pod.

"Me," he stated, simply.

"But, Dr. Cook—"

"Oh, yes. He would seem more the type wouldn't he?" said Hayne. "Next to him, who would suspect an incompetent wimp like me? Except I'm not a wimp, and I'm not incompetent."

"I knew it," said Henry. "I knew it was you. And so did Dr. Cook."

"Yes, he did, and so did the principal," Instructor Hayne responded smugly. "But they couldn't prove it. And because there are laws against firing someone on a whim, they couldn't get rid of me without finding a way to prove it to the authorities. Their word of what happened was not enough, especially since my boss helped me to delete the security record of the night of Halloween. There is no longer any evidence that I let my accomplice in on Halloween other than the testimony of the headmaster, some of the teachers and a few kids like you who were observant enough to figure out my error of judgment. Now enough of that, I'm busy."

Instructor Hayne returned to the computer screen.

"What are you doing? And why is my dad in there!" Mike demanded.

_Does he have to try to aggravate the dangerous criminal? _Henry thought.

Apparently said dangerous criminal felt the same way. He turned around and snapped, "Stop interrupting. I told you I'm busy!"

"Why are you doing this, anyway? Why are you trying to get the Powerup Stone?"

"Revenge, that's why. The muggles took away everything! My home, my acting career, even the love of my life! And my boss promised that I could have my revenge-once he was restored to full power and health, and able to escape from Azkaban! And so I have been reborn for revenge...as Lieutenant Movieman! But none of that's any of your buisness anyway."

Instructor Hayne turned back to the computer.

Both Henry and Mike refrained from pointing out how corny and stupid Instructor Hayne sounded when he said that. _Lieutenant Movieman? _What idiot came up with that? On the other hand, now they partly knew how Hayne had hoodwinked Principal Rooney.

"You said earlier that you had an accomplice," Mike pressed. "Who is it?"

"Gahhh! Stop distracting me! Just shut up or I'll-"

"Use the boy, he might know something…" a sinister low scratchy voice coming from Instructor Hayne interrupted. Except it wasn't his voice.

"What could he know, boss? He is only a child!"

"He is Greene's son."

Instructor Hayne turned around. "Come here, Greene!"

"No, I won't." Mike said.

"Do it! Or your father dies!"

Mike rushed forward.

"I assume you want me to help you figure out how to get the Powerup Stone out of that case over there, right?" asked Mike, indicating a metal ball in a case a few feet away from the computer, in the left corner of the room.

"Such help would definitely be welcome, but no," said Hayne. "My boss is the best hacker who ever lived. He'll eventually find a way to get it. What we want is to find out exactly how the stone works, how it recognizes the DNA of its owner, and most importantly, how to make it pass its ownership, so that it recognizes my boss's DNA, rather than your father's."

"Sorry, but I don't know any of that," said Mike. "He never told me any of that stuff. I'm not sure even he knows, since he wasn't the one who built it."

"You lie! You do know something!" said the scratchy voice.

"Tell the truth!" Hayne demanded. "You don't want your father to suffer, now do you?"

"I am telling the truth!" Mike insisted.

Somehow, though, Henry could tell he wasn't.

"No, you're not. I have released nanobots into the air in this room that attach to your head and can sense and transmit your brainwaves. While I cannot tell what you are thinking myself, my boss , who is mentally linked to me, is Psychic, and he can pick up brainwaves if they are transmitted through the air. Unfortunately, because of how far your brainwaves have to travel, and because it's coming from many different nanobots all over your scalp, he can't tell exactly what you're thinking. He does know that you're not being entirely truthful though..."

Hayne tapped his ear where there was a tiny device that resembled a hearing aid.

"Your boss is Hypnos, isn't he?" Mike guessed.

"Yes," said Hayne. "Now answer the question."

All this time, Henry had his attention divided. He was keeping his ears on the conversation while his eyes scanned the room, looking for anything useful, anything that could get them out of this mess without endangering Mike's father.

He was lucky Hypnos had all of his attention on Mike, or he would have realized what Henry was doing, what with the mental link to Hayne and all.

Henry's eyes finally settled on a long shelf attached to the left wall, with several preserved jars of chemicals on them. He knew he couldn't just open them at random, because if he opened something that turned out to be a gaseous toxin, or a poisonous liquid that evaporated instantly, they could all die.

Then Henry remembered he still had his PDA on him. He didn't want it to attract Hayne's attention, so he was careful to make sure it was on the lowest light setting he could make it and still see what was on the screen, and make sure the volume was completely muted. Henry then noticed he had a text message. He opened it. It was from a number he didn't know.

_6:30 pm_

_Hold on. The headmaster's coming._

Henry checked the time. It was five minutes after seven. He and his friends had entered the forbidden corridor a little after four. He realized that Mr. Rooney might not make it in time if he didn't already know how to get past the security system. But they'd have to find a way to hold on until he came. It was their only hope. Perhaps there was a chemical on the shelf that could be used to incapacitate Hayne without hurting anyone else?

Suddenly, Henry felt an impossibly painful migraine, as the low scratchy voice said, "I am Hypnos, one of the greatest geniuses of all time. You cannot trick me!"

Henry was thinking about everything and nothing at the same time, so quickly he couldn't tell what he was thinking about. His whole cerebral cortex ached, and it felt like his heart was racing a mile a minute. He felt a surge of powerful emotions. He felt an overwhelming connection to everything that he had ever known or been aware of, and his head was so full of thought and feeling that it hurt.

"Henry!" Mike shouted, alarmed

Hypnos was so focused on immobilizing Henry with pain that he made a fatal mistake. Because Henry's brain was being overstimulated by the brainwaves being sent from a psychic with a powerful intellect, and because he, like Hypnos, was also a psychic, he was able to concentrate a significant portion of that electro-chemical energy into accelerating the growth of certain areas of his cerebral cortex, namely ones that would, at least temporarily, increase his psychic power and allow him to know how to fight back.

And slowly, but surely, Henry began to fight back, releasing the energy in his head back into the air, where it was caught by all the nanobots floating around, and transmitted right back to Instructor Hayne. To Henry's horror, however, Instructor Hayne's brain wasn't built for such a powerful psychic attack. He was electrocuted, and fell to the ground, dead.

Exhausted, Henry also fell to the floor, and blacked out.


	10. March 17 to 21: Experience and Blood

Henry woke up in the Hospital Wing. He couldn't remember what he was doing there.

"Good, you're awake!" said Nurse Pam.

"What am I doing here?" asked Henry.

"Recovering," the Nurse said, promptly. "You took a shock to the head that damaged and killed some brain cells in that dense noggin of yours. You went to the forbidden corridor! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"_What?_"

"More than that, you encountered You-know-who and one of his servants, and you not only fought them off, you beat them! You're extremely lucky to be alive right now."

She sounded half awed, half disapproving.

Henry's mouth fell open.

"Don't worry, you should start to remember over the next week or so, by which point some people are going to come in to take your testimony on what happened earlier this month."

"What day is it today?' Henry asked.

"March 17th." And as Nurse Pam began to leave the room, she said, "No matter what, don't get out of that bed until I say you can!"

Henry looked at the hospital gown he was wearing. It wasn't green. He hoped no one decided to pinch him.

He looked at his bedside table. On it were a few treats, and an unexpectedly large stack of cards addressed to him.

He picked one up and began to read.

_Dear Henry,_

_All of my friends have been telling me the craziest things! I heard you went to Slytherin's abandoned lab at the end of the forbidden corridor, that you fought You-Know-Who and Instructor Hayne, who turned out to be the famous actor Raul Hiney in disguise, and won, all in order to help Mike Greene rescue his father! Is that true! Because if it is, you're my hero! But if it isn't, you should probably clarify how you actually got landed in the hospital wing, because the rumors people have been spreading keep getting crazier!_

_Get well soon!_

Henry felt overwhelmed. Had he really done all that? He doubted it. He had known all his life that he was too weak to stand up for himself. He had always relied on his older sister Jesse to fight his battles for him.

He picked up another card.

_Dear Henry,_

_Everybody's been talking about you. Apparently you're quite the hero for a first year. People have obviously been exaggerating the story a lot. I mean really, there's no way a first year could have done half of the things people are saying you've done. But what is clear to me from eavesdropping on the teachers is that Mike Greene went into the Forbidden Corridor and you went in there after him. That took guts! Hope you recover soon._

The next card seriously disturbed Henry.

_Mike/Henry is my new OTP!_

Henry slammed the card shut and decided not to read anymore until he'd fully recovered his memory, and seriously wished that Jesse had never told him what an OTP was.

Over the course of the week, with some help from the rumors, but mainly from visits by his friends, he began to piece together his memory of what had happened. He was astonished to find that he _had_ gone to the Forbidden Corridor, and he _had _fought off Hypnos, although it had been a fluke. Hypnos had panicked and made a careless mistake that allowed Henry to use his power against him. Hypnos hadn't even been there; he had been using a mental link to Instructor Hayne. Much of the security system was already disabled, and what he did get through safely was due to luck. Finally, Henry had only gone to stop Mike from getting himself killed.

On Friday, Henry had almost completely recovered, and he was allowed to leave. There was only one more problem Nurse Pam had to tell him about first.

"There was quite a bit of damage to some of the nerve insulation in your brain, so you won't be able to use your psychic powers for a while."

"For how long?" asked Henry.

"It could be in a few months," she said. "Or it could take a year or two. Considering the extent of the damage, I'm guessing it will be closer to the latter."

As soon as he got out, Regulus, Hayato, and Mike were waiting for him.

He looked at them. They looked at him.

"Well?" asked Henry. "Don't I get a hello?"

"Don't we?" asked Regulus.

"So then who's supposed to say hello first?" asked Henry.

"Maybe we should say it at the same time?" suggested Hayato.

"No, Henry should," said Regulus.

"Why?" asked Henry.

"To remind us you're alive, seeing as you worried us to death by nearly dying yourself," said Regulus, tears welling up in his eyes.

"I didn't think of that," said Hayato.

"But you know I'm alive, I'm standing right here. Why would you need a reminder?"

Getting impatient, Mike said, "Just say, 'Hey guys, I'm back' already so we can go now."

"Go where?" asked Henry.

Everybody glared at him, and it took him a moment to figure out why.

Feeling stupid, Henry said, "Hey guys, I'm back."

His friends took him to the top ground floor and told him that he was wanted in the principals office to give testimony to what had happened March 7th on the third floor, of Instructor Hayne's crimes and how he died.

Henry reached the antique spiral escalator ramp and his friends wished him good luck and left, since they had already given the authorities their accounts of events.

The escalator was large, and not as fast as the ones he'd seen in shopping complexes with Jesse. He knew that if it had been a straight ramp up to the principal's office, he would have been there in seconds. Getting impatient, he started to walk up the moving ramp. He didn't want to run, since he couldn't tell just by looking at it if it would hold if he did that. When he finally got to the top, he didn't even have to knock on the door. It opened, and Mr. Rooney's voice said, "Having fun on my escalator, Henry?"

"I was at first," Henry responded as he stepped through the doorway. "Then I realized that it was taking a lot longer than it should have."

He flushed in embarrassment when he realized that he might have just been rude to the principal, and hoped he didn't get in trouble.

"Life isn't a straight road, no matter how hard we try to make it so. Often I find myself wishing I hadn't tried such a thing, and took the time to appreciate the little things more," said Mr. Rooney. "That escalator's been here longer than I have. It may be obsolete, but it's an antique." And then he added in a clearly audible undertone, "But between you and me, I hate that escalator. I wish we could replace it, but the board of directors is strongly against it."

"That's because they're being sentimental about a four hundred years old piece of history," said Officer Greene, who was sitting in a comfy chair next to Mr. Rooney's desk.

Henry went to sit in the chair opposite, as Mr. Rooney retorted, "A piece of junk, that's what that is," as he sat, predictably, behind his own desk.

"So tell us everything that happened," said Officer Greene. "Everything you know about this 'Instructor Hayne', his crimes, and the events leading up to his death."

And so Henry told them everything. He told them of how he'd first began to suspect that Hayne had let the intruder in, how he had deduced the high possibility that it was a diversion to allow his unknown accomplice into the forbidden corridor to steal something, how he guessed that that something was whatever valuable had been moved from Gringotts. Henry told them of the poacher who had shot him in the leg and had been stealing specimens from Eelop's, whose voice sounded suspiciously like Hayne's. He told them of how Regulus and Hayato told him Mike got injured, and the conversation they had had in the hospital wing. Finally, Henry told of how he'd followed Officer Greene to the Forbidden Corridor, how he, Regulus and Hayato had found Dr. Cook unconscious outside the room that Mike had been trapped in, and how after they had freed Mike, they had chased him all the way through the virtual reality security system of the forbidden corridor.

Then Henry began to describe the confrontation with Hayne, who turned out to be Lt. Movieman, a servant of Hypnos.

"...and I listened to the conversation as I was looking around the room, trying to find something useful that could get us out of that mess. Hayne talked about how he wanted 'revenge on the muggles' or something like that, and that his boss, who turned out to be Hypnos-"

Both adults were shocked that Henry had said his name.

"Was going to help him get that revenge. In fact, they had a mental link, and Hypnos was using it to tell Hayne what to do. Hayne said he had filled the air with some nanobots that allowed Hypnos to almost or partially read our minds. I had noticed some jars of chemicals on the walls at this point, and I thought that if I could just find one that could incapacitate Hayne, we'd be safe. But-but Hypnos realized what I was up to..."

Henry trailed off at his point, because what happened next was traumatic. It had probably been the most intense and amazing experience he had ever or would ever go through, but also the most horrible and painful, and he dearly wished to never have to go through it again.

"If it weren't for the fact that Henry's medical condition happened for the same reason that Mr. Hiney died, I would say it was private and should stay that way. Unfortunately, however, we don't have that option. For this I apologize to you, Henry, but I hope that you'll forgive me for disclosing your private medical information without a warrant, given that knowledge of how Mr. Hiney died and how he inflicted your new metaphioslogical disability is important to keeping the same thing from happening to anyone else. Am I right to assume that your psychic torture at the hands of You-know-who through Mr Hiney is impossible to describe or imagine without the risk of causing more brain damage?"

Henry nodded. He could only vaguely remember the words to describe the experience, but not the sensation itself, and he felt that he really shouldn't even try to remember it, because it would be impossible to live through again. Perhaps the reason he felt that way was because it would cause another mental overload. However, one thing that he did remember from his time in the hospital wing stuck out at him. "Hiney?" asked Henry as Principal Rooney handed Nurse Pam's report on Henry's condition to Officer Greene. "So it's true that Instructor Hayne was that famous actor?"

"Yes, he was," said Principal Rooney. "I assume you've figured out by now that that was how he faked his injuries on Halloween?"

Henry nodded. Now that he thought about it, he had seen a mirror and makeup in the instructor's private quarters, even though it had only been for a few seconds.

"What I don't quite understand was why he wanted to help Hypnos kill all the muggles," said Henry, still not noticing the shocked reaction he was getting for using Hypnos's name. "He said that the muggles took away everything from him, but my sister is a muggle and she didn't do anything to him. It doesn't make sense."

"You're right, it doesn't," said Rooney gently. "But people often act in ways that don't make sense when faced with extremely intense emotions, particularly negative ones. Mr. Hiney has experienced much distress in his short life. He has lost everyhing he cares about to hatred and discrimination, and unfortunately, hatred and discrimination are often contagious."

It took a few moments for Henry to realize what the principal meant by contagious, but he had already continued on. "You see, his metaphysiogical power was much like a gecko. He could change the colors of his skin at will. And there are still quite a few people around the world who judge others' worth by their skin color. On top of this, Mr. Hiney's husband Sebastian was murdered by a jealous coworker after it was revealed that the couple were long-lost brothers. The fact that the the Hineys didnt divorce after learning about this, but instead stayed married for ten years, was a severe blow to his reputation. He was fired from his acting career, and no one would hire him again."

Henry's mind was spinning from this information, and he started to see the dead actor in a new light, although one thing was troubling him.

"But-they were brothers!" said Henry astounded. "How could they be married? Is it even possible?"

"But they weren't brothers," said Rooney. "At least, not in the way that matters. They were related by blood, but they hadn't known each other as brothers for most of their lives. And even if they had, they may still have fell in love. Never forget that it is _both_ our experiences and our blood that decide our fates, including the fate of falling in love. I find that keeping that in mind helps keep me from judging people unfairly. Perhaps if Mr. Hiney had been more aware of that, he would have realized that the harsh discrimination he faced was a result of centuries of the same prejudices being passed down through the generations, and he would have had it in him to forgive those who had wronged him on the grounds that they hadn't known any better. If that had been the case, he might not have been consumed by hatred."

"Well, that was certainly an entertaining philosophical discussion," said Officer Greene, handing back the nurse's report. "Aside from that we still don't know the identity of Mr. Hiney's accomplice, I think I've heard everything I needed to." He turned to Henry and said, "Thank you for your time. I hope that Ray's lecture hasn't bored you. He tends to go off on a tangent sometimes."

"It wasn't boring," said Henry. "Can I go now?"

Mr. Rooney frowned at Henry's impatience. "Yes, you can go."

"He didn't seem to like your philosophical ramblings," noted Mr. Greene, as Henry left.

"The students never do," Rooney complained.

Contrary to the impression he'd left, however, Henry had enjoyed those ramblings, and was contemplating them as he hurried down to the cafeteria, the reason for his impatience. He hadn't eaten anything all day, and he was starving.


	11. March 21 to May 31: End of the Year

There were still two months left of school, and final examinations were looming ever closer. For most of the first years, it was what decided whether they were able to pass to second year. For Hayato Goyle, however, it was what decided whether he'd be able to stay at Hogwarts. Regulus and Henry noticed that Hayato was getting more and more nervous as exams drew closer. He would alternate between feverish bursts of studying late into the night, and getting so shaky he couldn't concentrate, despite his friends frequent reassurances he'd do fine. When Hayato burst into tears on the day of the final Quidditch match of the year, Both Regulus and Henry were getting quite concerned (and somewhat impatient).

"You've only taken these exams twice already, so you know what's on them! " said Henry. "While I don't believe in magic, you know what they say—third time's the charm." said Henry.

At this, Hayato just sobbed harder.

"You're not helping, you're just making it worse," said Regulus. "And people don't say 'third times the charm' anymore, you heard that from a quote in social studies class."

"Oh, yeah."

Hayato was still crying.

"Hey Hayato, you should take a break," said Regulus.

"But I still need to study…"

"You're in no condition to."

"You won't pass your finals if you're this anxious," Henry pointed out.

Hayato froze up.

"Yeah, relax," Regulus said, adding what Henry thought he implied. "Why don't we go watch the Quidditch match, and study afterwards? Come on."

Finally giving in, Hayato put his study materials back in his bag and got up, following Regulus to the door of the Hufflepuff common room. Then Regulus realized that Henry wasn't behind them. Regulus went back and said, "You're coming too, Henry."

"I am? Why? I hate quidditch."

Regulus looked startled. "How can you hate it if you've never even seen it before? In any case don't forget the reason we're going."

"So Hayato can relax?"

"It will be a lot easier for him to do if his friends are there with him."

"Really? Why didn't you say so in the first place?" asked Henry, getting up. He walked out into the entrance hall with his friends, bracing himself for the worst as they opened the doors to the grounds and headed out to the gymnasium.

They took their seats in the stands and waited for the final match between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor to begin.

"Welcome to the final quidditch match of the season!"

said the commentator, Chuckie Weasley.

"First we have the Gryffindor team! Leslie, Mike, the beautiful Angelica Katz-"

"Weasley!"

"Sorry Ms. Georgina! Olive, Patricia, and my own brother GEOFREY!"

"And now for Hufflepuff. Jay, TJ, Izzy, Cassandra, Mandy, Will, and SETH!"

Both teams were on hover bikes and had taken their places on their sides of the gymnasium.

"Now Madam Leopard walks under the net to begin the game!"

As soon as she was in the center of the gymnasium floor, Madam Leopard gave a warning glare up to both teams to discourage cheating, before opening a zipper in the net, opening the chest she was holding and inserting two large blue foam balls, a smooth and shiny crimson football, and a golfball-sized, almost flimsy yellow wiffle ball with a tinier machine inside it. Then she flipped a switch, and air blasted out of the chest, sending all four balls flying into the air, signaling the start of the game.

"Geofrey has the Quaffle, and he's heading towards the goal, he shoots, and blocked by Hufflepuff keeper Cassandra!" Chuckie sounded very disappointed. And she passes to TJ, who passes to Jay, who passes to Iz–intercepted by Gryffindor chaser Leslie, but she's hit by a bludger and falls into the net, and TJ takes possession of the Quaffle..."

Henry blinked. Those bludgers could knock someone off their bike! Clearly they weren't ordinary foam balls.

"Has Seth Davies seen the snitch? He has! Gryffindor seeker Mike Greene rushes to intercept him. But he's too late! Seth has made the first catch! Earning his team 50 points! He releases the snitch and the game continues..."

Henry had to admit that the game looked more fun than he expected. But he was getting bored of just watching. And his ears were hurting from the loud cheering around him. VERY loud cheering. He looked at Regulus and Hayato. At least they were enjoying this. By the time the game was over, Henry knew what his headache meant. He would never go to another Quidditch game again. Unless it was a private game where he wouldn't have to deal with all the screaming and craziness. Like that would ever happen.

Mike Greene was now spending much of his time with his friends in Hufflepuff, either studying for finals or talking and playing games. It was spring break, and all four of them were staying at Hogwarts.

As Mike studied nearby, Regulus, Hayato and Henry sat at a table in the library, staring each other down, each with their cards fanned out in front of them. It was a battle of wills. Each of them passed a card to the person on their right. Unfortunately, Hayato couldn't keep a poker face for very long. A smile started to leak onto his face before his finger had even reached his nose. As soon as it had, Regulus's finger flew to his nose instantly. But it took Henry half a second longer to notice, and by that point it was already too late. His finger, mere millimeters from his nose, fell to the table in defeat.

"I told you this would be fun!" said Regulus as soon as he had won his fifth game in a row.

"Yeah," Henry admitted. "But it's also extremely frustrating. I just can't seem to win."

"I'm sure there're lots of people who'd want me to lose at Pig," Regulus said, smugly.

"Me included, Dork!" Sandra Brown had just walked in. She turned to Henry.

"So? Is it true?"

"Is what true?" asked Henry. He wasn't sure what she wanted from him and what she was asking, but he had a vague suspicion.

"You going into the forbidden corridor, fighting against You-know-who and Instructor Hayne and winning?"

Henry sighed. He really didn't want to answer that question. The way she put it brought up his own doubts. It was still hard to believe he had done that. Just a year ago he would have thought it impossible. But being at Hogwarts had changed him. It was like walking into a new world, and discovering a completely different side of himself that he didn't think could exist. Someone who was smart, and brave, and happy–well, some of the time. What would happen when he got back home? Were these changes real? Would they stay?

"So?" asked Sandra, impatiently.

"Yes," Henry said quietly

"What?"

"Yes," said Henry louder. He gulped. "It's true. All of it."

Sandra was taken aback. "You're lying."

"No, he's not!" said Regulus. "We were with him."

Sandra glared at her younger brother hatefully, and swept out of the library.

For the rest of the school year, Henry noticed that many students whispered and stared at him as he passed, and would stop talking whenever he looked back at them. If they were trying to hide what they were doing, they weren't doing a good job of it.

"Why won't they stop staring at me?" asked Henry in frustration, five minutes before the end of year feast at the end of May.

"You went to the forbidden corridor and fought you-know-who," said Regulus. "They're going to be staring at you for quite a while. Best get used to it. Now come on! The house cup ceremony is about to start."

They rushed through the doors to the Cafeteria and took their seats at one of the Hufflepuff tables next to Hayato, who was already there. After everyone was done eating, Principal Rooney stood up to speak.

"It is nearly time to award the house cup. But before that, I have some last minute points to award. I would've given them earlier, but I felt that giving them on a special occasion would be far more fitting and dramatic. So, to Hayato Goyle and Regulus Brown, for doing what was necessary to save the life of another student in spite of the dangers. Your outstanding bravery and loyalty to your friends has earned each of you 8,000 points.

"And to Henry Fergus. For doing what was necessary to save the life of another student, and for quick thinking and keeping a cool head in spite of the danger, and for helping to rescue both Mike Greene and his father officer Thorald Green, and stopping Hynos and his servant from acquiring the Powerup stone, you have earned yourself a whopping 12000 points. And now for the results.

In fourth place, Ravenclaw with 212, 021 points. In third place, Gryffindor with 232,078 points, In second place, Slytherin with 243, 001 points. And in first place, Hufflepuff with 263, 210 points! Hufflepuff has won the house cup!

And with those words, the banners hanging from the ceiling glowed and the electronic displays sewed onto them changed to show a badger on a yellow and black background, the symbol of Hufflepuff house.

"Everyone make sure to get some sleep BEFORE the trip home tomorrow. We can't have anyone missing their destination. Other than that, have fun this summer, and I'll see you all next year."

Everyone boarded the buses to the Hogsmeade airport the following morning. For Regulus, Henry, Hayato and Mike, most of the next hour and a half were spent in companionable silence, either reading, playing games, listening to music or watching TV on their PDAs. When they finally got to the airport, they turned to each other. Regulus was the first one to speak.

"Let's all exchange email addresses, so we can stay in touch over the summer.

And so they did. Henry was still smiling by the time he reached his mother at the waiting room for the plane to Columbus. She didn't say a word to him, and he was grateful for it. Even though she strongly disapproved of the reasons, Henry was grinning wider than she had ever seen him grin.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Author's note:

And that's the end of Powerup Stone. Here's a sneak preview of what the next book is about:

**Henry Fergus and the Guardian of Hogwarts**

_Henry Fergus's second year at Hogwarts is even more dangerous then the last. The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, and with it a threat to the safety of many Hogwarts students. When one of his friends is suspected of being the culprit, Henry will do anything to prove his innocence. But as the number of casualties grows and the stakes get higher, can Henry protect his friend when most of the evidence seems to point to him? All is not as it seems._


End file.
